


Stay bravely green in wintertime

by Elisexyz



Series: 25 days of Swanfire fic-mas [20]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everybody Lives, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 13:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17244884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: Neal Cassidy is the new Christmas tree.





	Stay bravely green in wintertime

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Trimming the tree" prompt in the [ "25 days of fic-mas" challenge on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/tagged/25-days-of-fic-mas/chrono). Two today, because otherwise I wouldn't get to twenty LOL. In this fic there's a second Swanfire child, born somewhere after Neverland. Obviously, nobody died and everything is happy and sunny.  
>  Well, this series has been fun! A very good excuse to write a bunch of Swanfire fluff, I'm very happy with it, I hope you all enjoyed it too!

Emma pushes the boxes inside with her feet and closes the door behind her, smiling a little at the sound of giggling coming from the living room. She pushes the boxes with the Christmas decorations all the way there, not wanting to waste any time: Sophie was very impatient about setting up the tree, convincing her to wait until the end of Emma’s shift must have been quite the feat, she’s going to take Neal out of his misery as soon as possible.

When she walks into the room, though, she isn’t too sure if he’s miserable or not anymore.

“Weren’t we supposed to decorate the _tree_?” she asks, raising her eyebrows and biting back a laugh – with much effort, she might add.

Sophie, who is very busy fixing all of her hairclips in Neal’s hair, turns sharply towards her, grinning from ear to ear. “Mommy!” she greets her, happily. “Dad said to wait,” she explains then, with a little shrug. “So he’s the tree now!”

“And I make a _great_ tree, if I can say so myself,” Neal adds. He only moves his eyes in her direction, and he adds: “Sorry, can’t greet you properly now, I wouldn’t want to mess up my hairstyle.”

Sophie seems very pleased by the sentiment, and Henry is just as close to die laughing as Emma is. She needs to take a picture of this.

“You were part of this?” she asks, amused, nodding in Henry’s direction.

He shrugs. “I was just being a good big brother,” he declares. Then, he holds up Neal’s right hand for her to see. “And I’ve discovered that painting nails is much more fun than I thought.”

“Those— are actually really good,” Emma comments, impressed, moving closer to inspect them some more. Henry is great at drawing, so it’s kind of expected that he’d have a good hand, but _damn_. She usually doesn’t colour her nails, but she’s going to call her son to do it if she ever decides to. Those rainbows are _great_.

“Do you like the hair too?” Sophie intervenes, eagerly, stepping aside a little and gesturing to the insane amount of hairclips on Neal’s head. He looks _so_ ridiculous, and Emma can only be grateful that she lived to see this moment, because _wow_.

“I _do_ ,” she says, smiling at her and reaching for her back to rub it lightly. It isn’t even a lie, this is the highlight of her whole week. “I’ll tell you what, it’s _much_ better than the usual mess Dad has on his head.”

“Hey,” Neal intervenes, mocking offense. “Just because Sophie’s work is so much better it doesn’t mean you have to be rude to me. I got feelings, you know?”

Emma snorts, shaking her head lightly. “Well, I’ve got the decorations,” she announces, clapping her hands as she turns towards their kids. “So, you want to set up the tree?”

Sophie is already barrelling towards the boxes before she’s had time to finish the sentence, and Henry is quick to follow, just as enthusiastically: he may be right in the middle of those _wonderful_ teenage years that mean a lot of extra work for all three of his parents – sit-downs with Regina, to discuss what the hell is going on and see if between the three of them they can piece it together, are not uncommon these days –, but he still gets a kick out of Christmas traditions. Emma guiltily thinks that it has something to do with the fact that he missed so many with her and Neal, and she’s happy that he doesn’t feel like he’s too big now decorate with them.

As soon as the kids are out of earshot, she gives Neal an helping hand as he gets up – who knows how long he has been sitting on that small toy-chair, it’s a wonder that it didn’t break and land him on his ass – and she grins at him.

“Are you going to stay like that all day?” she asks, although she can already guess the answer.

“Of course,” he replies, predictably. “There’s a lot of work behind this, you know?”

“Well, you look adorable,” she snorts, unable to look at him in the eye for too long without downright laughing and choosing to glance at the kids instead – they are already diving into the decorations, and Henry is thankfully sensible enough that he’s keeping his sister away from the tangled lights.

“Thanks,” he grins. A _Little Mermaid_ hairclip chooses that exact moment to fall on his face, taking a good chunk of hair with it. Just when she thought he couldn’t possibly look more ridiculous.

“I’m _so_ taking pictures,” she warns.

“Never doubted it.”

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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